Grrl Power #345 – KA-POW + KA-BLAM = KA-CHING!
That’s recruit pay Sydney. Wait till you make Corporal.
Most stories are about ordinary people in extraordinary situations, but at this point you guys know I prefer writing about extraordinary people in ordinary situations. I don’t think making Sydney well off will hamper my story telling at all. Besides, as has been said many times in the comments (and I think at least few in the comic itself) that having super powers usually means you can make a seriously good living totally within the law. Why rob a bank when you can make more money by telekinetically unloading freighters in 20 minutes each, or lay transcontinental cable in a fraction of the normal time with your water breathing and super strength combo? That makes getting someone to potentially get shot at with bullets, lasers and lightning is a tougher sell unless you make it worth their while. Of course there are thrill seekers who want the adrenaline of either breaking the law or stopping that type, or they’re sold on nationalism or responsibility or whatever ideology motivates them, still, a healthy paycheck helps keep them around and provides stability to the team composition.
It was challenging to write so many pages of the comic without the topic of pay coming up. I don’t think I’ll say what the exact dollar amount is, but it’s something in the order of “you can have one jet, or ten supers per year” Admittedly that’s a huge range depending on what jet you’re talking about (and whether you include the R&D costs, maintenance staff and infrastructure, etc.) One Heatwave is not worth one jet in terms of crime fighting power, (not that people do a lot of crime fighting in jets, but you get what I mean) Ten Heatwaves… arguably worth one jet, or at least ten Heatwave level supers. One Maxima is worth an entire battle group, so mileage varies, but at least supers don’t require nearly the same support staff. Their insurance is rather a bit higher though.
The prior page ended kind of vaguely, which wasn’t ideal, but that’s because I wanted to save Sydney’s entire reaction for this page. I realize now that I’ve drawn it, her reaction is actually quite similar to Fry’s, if somewhat more terse. (She doesn’t faint, but we’ll get to that.) I thought it was more heavily inspired by Ren and Stimpy where Stimpy gives up $47 million to be back living with Ren, but looking it up on youtube, Ren’s reaction is just to get angry and smack Stimpy around. This is one of those pages that’s been floating around in my head for so long it probably has several influences.
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HAH CALLED IT!
I really love this page because it almost sums up the entirety of Syd’s personality or at least her view of who and what supers are into one perfect moment. She would have done, or at least continued to do everything, go through all the dangers etc. with little or even no compensation. In the battle and afterward she never once demanded payment or even thought about it. I mean if she had sat down and really thought about it it would probably have come up but it’s not in her nature to expect compensation because she gets to do something that is her passion, she gets to be an actual superhero.
That’s like, the perfect minds set to have being a superhero. This really tickles me pink, great page!
Yeah, she’s actually a cool, good person. Still a total spaz, and kinda a doofus, but she’s a good person.
If, on the day after I signed the contract, I got paid according to Elite-Unit Special Forces scale, I’d look just like Sydney in the last panel.
And this is while she’s still a recruit? Sydney looks like Archon’s payscale outranks most regular Officers’ pay. “Rare & valuable abilities,” indeed!
I’m kindof curious to know what Maxima’s paycheck looks like. Since she’s the most senior field officer, and has been in service QUITE a while, I’m expecting she may get per month what Sydney gets per half-year.
Considering she originally thought that the government was going to dissect her if she ever revealed her powers, it can be said that Sydney didn’t really think through much of this situation based on fact (or in-universe research/media) and rather on comic book and entertainment tropes. And in comic books/shows, you rarely see the heroes getting paid for their work (or its a throwaway line).
Yep, that Syd is a class act.
So what do we think? $75000 or upwards on $250,000?
“More money than I made all last year” (it’s 2 paychecks worth) so at the very least it’s 12-15 times what her comic shop paycheck is. Best guess, minimum, $50k, for that one check.
I’d be drooling too.
Actually, the Fry Drool/Seizure gif is quite accurate here
No, its one full normal paycheck I think plus a partial (the time between joining up and the start of the next pay period, which would be anywhere from 0 to 13 days., just early so she has money to cover the 3-4 weeks till the first regularly scheduled one. I imagine theyve background-checked her and have an idea what she usually makes and thus know this one should be plenty.
More than she made last year for 1 two-week cheque would be 26x her comic shop paycheck.
She doesn’t have a comic shop paycheck. “More money than I made last year” is really the only comparison she can do, because she co-owns a shop and her “salary” is however much money she and Joel take out of the shop profits.
I make a pretty decent wage where I work. $15/hr x 40hrs/week. After taxes, medical, etc etc, I usually take home about $820 every two weeks, which comes out to about 23k/year. Even if she’s pulling half the profits from the comic store, I don’t imagine she’s making much more than 30k/year there after taxes.
So if this is one check, bare minimum it would be 30k, which means she’s making 840k/yr. If I saw that, I would react the exact same way.
TBH…I would react that way if I ever saw my regular check break $1500.
According to normal military pay scheduling, one check is half a month…Two paychecks per month. When I was in-service, originally got paid on the 15th & the last calendar day of the month…But then at some point, it switched to the 1st & the 15th. I’ve been out more than long enough that I couldn’t say whether it’s still the same, or switched around.
It’s a small comic shop, and she has to split profits with Joel. I’d be really surprised if a shop that small cleared 60K a year. I’ve been out of the industry a long time, but I’d guess her yearly take home is less than 25K.
On the other hand, 25K biweekly for a year is $650,000… which is likely too much! You’re getting into lesser sports star territory there, and we don’t pay the military or public servants that much.
Ummm. If its a twice-monthly check it’s only $600,000 (lol)!
So… $6,000,000 to. $6,500,000 for ten supers for a year… You could almost buy a new Learjet for that… So maybe Im being too conservative.
Huh! Forgot to allow for taxes (about 40% in that area). So, roughly $1M a year. You can’t buy a new top-of-the-line Learjet for ten million, but you can get a 60 for something in that neighborhood…
Its most likely a pay for rarity and pay not to screw around money. Working for the US mint for example I understand ways very well compared to same work in other government offices of in private sector to keep people from being tempted to take their work home so to speak. (I have a family member who sells equipment to the mint and apparently they often have pallets of cash just sanding around getting in the way.
Dave says a tenth of a jet and the US is really only buying one kind right now…an F35 costs around $100 million apiece, depending on the variant it can cost nearly $120M, That’s a 10 million dollar salary, divided by 52=$192,307.69…x2 for it being a double paycheck… makes it…. $384,615.38.
Top tax bracket will eat 39.6%, so throw away $152307.69,,,, leaves roughly $232307.69
So yeah she IS gonna buy an Action #1.
Mint.
Also, the shop is doing pretty good after you take out the loan payments.
I was thinking more along the lines of a Learjet (see: consumer jet, commonly used for recreation), which is about $3 mil. Ignoring taxes, ($3 mil / 10) / 26 is about $11,500. Taxes for bottom bracket (AKA what I’m making) are about 24.6%, so for her I guess it’d be about 33.1%, giving her a paycheck of about $7,700.
I bet that’s still more than she made last year. Comic shops don’t pay that well (especially with how well Sydney’s reportedly doing), and $8.50 per hour on partial time gave me about $7000 in a year.
So no, the shop’s not doing that well, and yes, that’s a decent chunk of cash. (About what an entry-level engineer makes, I think.)
Military organization.
They’re not talking about a learjet.
(They’re probably talking about an Osprey, actually, given the nature of this particular organization.)
Regardless, just given Sydney’s immediate reaction I’d call your answer a serious lowball. Entry-level engineer salary wouldn’t elicit that kind of response, and definitely wouldn’t be competitive enough enough to lure supers out of safe, ludicrously high-paying private industry jobs to get shot at by supervillains.
My dad is a farmer, and there are years where he claimed $0 for wages earned. As a failing business owner, I think Sydney is definitely making below minimum wage.
Knowing Sydney, that is an “I can buy ALL the comics I want” drool instead of borrowing limited store inventory.
Heck, she could probably buy out Joel’s share in the shop. And still have room for expansion. within a year, she could probably set up a chain franchise in several states…
Joel might not appreciate going from full partner to mere employee, though.
She can’t buy him out unless he’s willing to sell, and he might appreciate the lump sum buy-out followed by a steady and reliable paycheck.
Entry-level engineer salary is crazy high, for what I think what I do is worth. I was charging people (as in 1 customer, twice) $15 per hour doing design work until I did some math. $7700 per two weeks is about $100 per hour. (Since I’m not a professional, I still only charge $25 per hour, but that’s still a lot more than I normally make.)
As far as one jet vs. 10 supers, that was Dave’s comment. I’m not sure what he thinks a jet is worth, but I think recruit payment with no training being the same as entry-level after 4+ years of college is pretty good.
No, I can tell you that is definitely *NOT* what an entry-level engineer gets these days; more like 4-5x what they get.
I really wish it was, though. xD
Sydney isn’t a comic shop cashier, she’s a co-owner. She could have made anywhere between 0 and 100K last year, but it’s not $8.50 an hour. The shop is probably profitable, but the profits aren’t enough to give them a decent salary, so I’d guess she made 50K last year, but this year is looking to be around 20K.
The exact same thing would happen to math if he ever made it to the girls shower… followed by many horrible horrible horrible things… months of recovery… and this his first words … “worth it”
And you know what?
It totally would be.
My first thought: does Harem get paid a quintuple wage? (I know she doesn’t but it’s fun to imagine)
Also, good progress on the gun building, Sydney.
Confession. I have had slide assemblies get away from me like that too.
I’ve done that reloading what looks like a 1950s era stapler.
She’s further along than I am, I’ve never touched a gun in my life.
I’m more the bow kind of person, but Scouting afforded me the chance to use a .22 rifle and a [low kick] shotgun (12 gauge?).
Im more of a bow person too. I use guns but have never gone into the whole full strip and reassembly thing so I would likely do even worse my first few tries. :p
I prefer bows for hunting and such, but guns are more useful for home defense. Mine’s a revolver though, doesn’t require the same kind of maintenance ^_^()
A 12 gauge is pretty much standard, if you fired a ‘low kick’ shotgun it was probably a 20 gauge or a 410.
I’m from Australia, where guns are banned. Can someone tell me in simple terms what gauge means? I hear it a lot in movies and games, but never knew what it means or what impact it has. Websites out there use quite technical field terms…
Gauge describes the diameter of the barrel. Lower numbers are more here.
The actual way to arrive at the number is to put the largest lead sphere you can into it, then find the weight of the sphere as a fraction of a US pound. The gauge is the denominator.
Smurfton got it but that is the rather complicated way to explain it.
A 12 ga is .69 inch bore, and it would take 12 .69 inch lead balls to make 1 US pound of lead.
.69 inch is between 19 and 20 millimeters.
And depending on the type of load used in it, a 12 gauge can be used for bird hunting (such as dove, duck, pheasant) all the way up to hunting grizzly and polar bear or elephants.
A standard defense or combat load in a 12 gauge is 00 Buckshot call Double Aught Buck, which is usually 9 .33 diameter lead balls in each shell. There is also 000 Buck (8-.36 balls), 0000 buck (5-.40 balls), Buck and Ball ( 4-00 buck and 1-.69 ball), Slugs, from 1/2 ounce .69 diameter, up to 1 1/2 ounce .69 diameter, Breaching rounds (Sintered metal designed to destroy locks and hinges on doors that if used against a human leaves very large wound channels through and through), then there is Jungle loads of #4 buck (.24) and 00 Buck all the way down to #12 (.05 diameter)
Check out Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shot_%28pellet%29#Sizes
Or the picture at this link: https://www.shotgunworld.com/shot_sizes.jpg
I’ve only handled an FN FiveSeven once in my life and don’t know how they break down or go back together. If you did that with most pistols it would mean you left the slide stop pin out which also locks the barrel into the gun.
I’ve been breaking down and reassembling pistols for over 20 years now, and I occasionally shoot the buffer spring from my 1911 across the room.
I think anyone who has stripped and cleaned a 1911 has done that at least once.
To paraphrase Triplicate Girl (Triad) from the Zero Hour reboot of Legion of Superheroes:
“When (RJ Brand)’s business partner joked about him getting three times the work out of me, he tripled my pay.”
They would be foolish not to pay Harem five wages.
The thing is, there being five of her is one of her powers, which is why they are paying her so much to begin with. Without that she is a somewhat mediocre hero.
Teleportation is good. Having five of you and communicating between all five bodies at once WHILE holding separate conversations is really good. Doing both of those? Worth paying at least twice as much as any non-officer super (like Heatwave), although perhaps not five times as much.
If the money is meant to cover expenses, Harem needs about five times as much as other people. If it’s meant to instill loyalty, Harem needs to be paid a lot more than other people since her default loyalty seems so low and because her powers are so perfect for exploitation should she defect.
It’s probably dependent on the power. Someone that just has ultra sensitive touch (great for infiltration and bomb disposal) probably won’t get paid quite as much as say someone with Maxima’s suite of powers. In the end it will just come down to technicalities as they will all be getting paid more than the average person, and it’s doubtful any would complain.
Sydney’s screws are loose and she’s foaming at the mouth. This can’t be good…
On the contrary, Sydney thinks it’s VERY good.
:D
Yeah, I thought as much. An average jet fighter is about 70 to 100 million dollars as far as I know, which means a pay of between 5 and 10 million dollars a year for each super. That in turn means about 200’000$ on that paycheck alone, and it’s a low estimate (could be twice as much). I find it extremely strange to be paid every two weeks but I guess that’s American culture at work(?).
Overall, the pay makes sense. It’s very high, but not unrealistic. People working in banks’ treasuries can easily make half that much, and managers probably make more than that.
Depends on the job. I worked for the state government (I live in Texas) for six years, and I only got paid once a month. So do most school teachers, as far as I know. Some private businesses pay weekly.
A lot of Federal agencies as well as the Armed Forces pay on the 1st and 15th of the month. It is an older tradition that the private sector and state government have gotten away from.
P.S., some people are probably going to ask, “But isn’t teaching a government position?”
Well, if you’re a professor at a state college, yes. If you’re teaching at a public school district, no… even though most public school districts get some funding from both the state and</b? federal level.
Indeed, most K-12 American school funding comes from local municipal (meaning city) proptery Taxes and the occasional voter approved bond. Supplemented by State and Federal programs of various kinds (assuming the school/district can/willing to complie with the requirements).
Like you said, most teachers are NOT in a government position. To be in government, all personnel must take a lawfully-binding Oath of Office to the State Constitution, the United States Constitution, or both.
Yes, even right down to the local dog catcher & the Justice of the Peace has to be under Oath…But the driver for the politician’s limo isn’t.
I suppose that depends on what you mean by “government.” By my book, if you work for the government (or any other organization), you’re part of the government (or other organization). The exception, of course, is the independent contractor.
Even working in the State Department doesn’t mean that you’re actually part of the government. Government sub-contracts to a lot of different type of private-sector companies. The big difference is that contractors are not actually IN government & not required to take the Oath of Office. What they get paid is a matter of commercial contract.
Sydney had to take the Oath, just like anybody else going into the military. That contract she signed yesterday is an Oath-bound contract & doesn’t get to negotiate what she gets paid. Not that it looks like she wants to…
When I was in the Army you had the choice of being paid every two weeks or once a month. Direct deposit was required. Granted, this was a quarter century ago. My current job has a two week pay cycle as well.
In the UK it seems to depend on the formality of the job. when i was a student working part time, i got paid weekly, but full time professional work is 2 weeks or monthly
@TheMormegil
It does vary. Typical full employment tends to be every 2 weeks, but my particular form of contractor is every week, which is rather nice actually.
I work for a state government in Australia and also get fortnightly pay so it is not just US.
P.S. Syd don’t drool on the cheque. They would probably charge to re-issue it.
Reminds me when I had to dismember a machine gun (the German MG3). One twist and the breech block was in it’s parts. And after reassembly I had one part still left.
That’s what you get for not reading the directions. In my defense I hadn’t gotten them yet. :)
Spare parts are never a good sign. And Chinese puzzle style interlocking parts are the worst for that.
I remember four of us- one qualified armorer who machined his own parts, one gun shop owner who’s seen it all and sold most of it, one solid gun nut, and the item’s owner- standing around staring at a fifty-year-old off-brand lever action rifle in pieces on the counter and trying to figure out how to get it back together.
“Dude, are you SURE all these parts came out of the same gun?”
…yes, but did you get it back together?
Took a while (lots longer than it should have taken two professionals and one talented amateur), but yes. Then we told the owner not to take it apart again.
Would it have been faster with only one professional?
Not this time but I’ve seen that too.
Problem was that even though it was a remington solid top ripoff, it wasn’t an exact copy, and some of the parts were different… so we spent about an hour trying to put it together like it was a remington when it wasn’t.
If memory serves the trick was something really stupid and we did a lot of facepalming, but this was twenty years ago and I don’t remember what.
I was taking apart an M60 machinegun once and the operating rod didn’t want to come out. I was yanking & wiggling on it, when it sproinged out and center-punched me in the middle of the forehead. I’ve still got a tiny little scar you can barely see.
inb4 Harry Potter joke
i did that when i was 6 a friend of mine was teaching me to tear down and put together a glock 17. had the slide fly off and hit him right in the nuts
I can come close to relating. After years of part-time work my first paycheck from a full-time job solved so many problems. Regular infusions of cash in the wallet eased a lot of pressures and created both long and short term options that hadn’t existed before. Sydney is short-circuiting trying to process what comes first, after being able to afford lunch.
At least Sidney now knows she won’t have to close the shop due to a lack of money. And can probably improve the place.
My thoughts exactly.
Though I wonder what stuff crosses Sydney’s mind. “I could buy a Batman suit… heck I could buy Batman!”
But buying out Wayne Industries (which would come with Batman as part of the package) would be problematic…
In a world… (go ahead. Imagine movie- guy voice) where supers allofasudden exist,
would ComicBook shops be a growth industry?
Putting some upgrades in the store might be a wise investment.
Once trained and deployed (what… Like National Guard?) I don’t see her
having the time to be hands-on there.
In Spinnerette, actual superheroes get dedicated comics, in addition to fictional supers. That could work here too, I think.
True, but Spinny has Ben Franklin and the ASA.
IF she had stuck with the “standard” superhero contract I’d agree with you about lack of time to do anything else… but remember, she had a “condition” before she signed the enlistment contract, we THINK we’re sure that the condition was to be able to take time off of heroing to run the comic shop, due to her outburst when she interrupted the meeting with the President… BUT… but we haven’t been told SPECIFICALLY by Dave either in comments (as far as i know?) OR in-comic yet either…
And paying for lunch is not such a big deal anymore.
Min wage = 7.25/hour * 40 hour/week * 52 weeks = 15k * 52/2 weeks = 392k
Call it $400k a year. Yeah, I’d be drooling too.
Im guessing a million a year :)
Agreed, I read it as more than 26x her normal take-home pay. Begone, money issues!
*drools onto keyb
She probably wasn’t making minimum wage. Remember, she’s struggling to her shop afloat. See above comment.
She may not be making minimum wage this year, but if the shop were that unprofitable last year they already would have sold it.
or they had just opened it THIS year… and it wasn’t profitable enough to LAST until next year…
I can respect anyone who understands the the value of a dollar, they are also the ones who I think would relate most to Sidney right now.
The value of a dollar is inversely proportional to how many of them you have…
Next up – Sydney gets hit with Sudden Wealth Syndrome. People tend to be unaware how far money goes if they get a lump of cash well above what they’re used to. This is why lottery winners usually go bankrupt in a few years.
Fortunately, she’ll be getting this same lump of cash every two weeks indefinitely, so going broke isn’t going to be an issue even if she DOES fall prey to that trap.
See you’d think that but bad spending habits can quickly land you into extreme dept even stupid amounts of bi-weekly lumps of cash can’t solve.
FYI look back at the very start of the comic and look at how Syd travels to work. Either this happened and got resolved or she never got into that trap and decided to invest rationally. A story arc around that would be a very slice of life.
it’s not the one she’s driving a few days latter, but it’s not hugely shiny and expensive.
I’d say she got a newish car to replace the older not so newish one.
It occurs to me that Arianna is smart enough to be aware of Sudden Wealth Syndrome and to be ready for it–let the recruit blow a few paychecks, keep a watch on them, and if it looks like they’re going to get in over their heads, step in with some useful investment advice.
At a certain point, with the level of income we’re talking about, even if you get in debt, it’s going to be manageable if you can stop the bad habits in time.
That seems the most likely outcome to me, yeah.
Sydney being herself is going to throw a massive cut of this to her shop isn’t she? They were discussing that shops money troubles way back at the start of the comic. between the influx from having a super as part/part owner and staff and Sydneys higher wage, they’re back in the green
Well, it’s a sensible investment.
Though I doubt the shop will stay struggeling for much longer with Halo selling her own merch there
Yeah, I can easily imagine Sydney getting the shop up and running, maybe buying it in full and hiring Joel and more staff, can easily imagine her doing a lot of good with the money.
For all her…uniqueness, Syndey strikes me at heart as a very good person. it’s safe to say moneys heading shopwards and parentwards
is parentwards a word?
it is now
Portmanteaus for everyone
If she really becomes this rich, she’s probably going to spread atlest part of the wealth around.
And start a huge collection
The absolute last thing she should do is try to buy out Joel. First off, they are by all signs co-owners each with an equal stake in the business. Offering to buy Joel’s half of the shop would be a friendship-killing maneuver, as either of them could probably be employed by any competing shops within their metro area. Second, Joel is the one with the business acumen, so keeping him connected to the shop by more than an employee can be expected to care is important to its success.
Hmm dunno, she won’t have as much time to be in the store now, so, if she became owner, with Joel basically running the store at maybe increased pay, and getting the money he put into the store back, it would be a win win for him? or at least that’s how I see it? Might be wrong though in how it would work out? I am no expert in this kind of stuff. But it would remove any risk for Joel’s investment and still allow him to work and get a good pay?
if you look back in the verry first pages befor this epic flashback happens the comic store in those first few pages is a bigger store with a second floor i would bet sydney uses her massive pay checks to buy the larger place.
Well spotted
Hell, it could become the offical store for ALL Arc merch. ;)
Not to mention that they’re probably back in the green already after the media invasion at the shop, bringing public attention (even though not fully wanted). Just wanted to mention it ;-)
I hereby want to explain that it took me more than 20 minutes to type 2 lines because of a distraction.
If it was it Squirrels, we understand…
I like it in worlds like this, were Metahumans are uncommon but not unheard of, when there are common joe metahumans. Most people just aren’t cut out for constant, day in day out violence. They are the exception not the rule.
The classic flight and superstrength combo would do a lot more good in construction than they ever could punching supervillains. Or in search and rescue. And if they can breathe in space then even 1 of them would shortcut the entire space station thing.
Any fire based super could power an entire city for a week with a few blasts of fire at a specially designed generator. One of the upsides of the ability to generate energy from nothing.
And the truly obscene powers like the Hulks and Supermen? Well, get Hulk big enough and he can create nuclear explosions by clapping. Superman could spin a lever on a giant magnet a few times and create enough electricity to power the planet for a year.
They are wasted in law enforcement, unless there are supervillains that cant be handled normally.
You got that superman turbine thing from saturday morning breakfast cereal didnt ya? :)
https://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2305
https://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2305 here you go
Curse you slow loading web page! ;)
So I’m not the only one cursed by that. That’s a relief.
Not sure what handgun you’re modeling that off of, but modern firearms use very few screws if any. I know my handgun (which I also know doesn’t speak for all of them) doesn’t use any screws at all. In fact, to take it down for cleaning requires no tools at all and leaves me with a total of 4 parts: frame, slide, barrel, recoil spring. (Springfield XDm) The slide and frame are not designed for further disassembly in the field. A factory would have the tooling for replacement of all the other parts, but the end user doesn’t need that.
Rifles on the other hand, can use several. But even then they don’t usually need to be removed for field stripping and cleaning.
Granted, it’s a fictional story and it makes for good jokes. There’s a meme floating around the mechanics that goes along the lines of “Extra bolts just means you made it more efficient”.
Sydney could have been given an older model with lots of parts on purpose to help her focus.
If it’s a standard FiveSeven, it looks like she left the take down lever unlocked.
And she’s doing a complete assembly/disassembly, armorer style, not a simple field strip.
Not being in the military myself, but I think weapons training involves just field stripping for cleaning, and malfunction diagnosis. Anything more than just a broken return spring would render the gun out of service and go back to the actual armorer to be repaired properly.
Sydney was specifically given the task of building the gun from component parts, not a field strip: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1754
And don’t even start on the trigger mechanism for bullpup rifles
I started fixing things as an adolescent and for over half a century I almost ALWAYS make them more efficient – nuts, bolts, washers, springs, whatever. And they (almost) always work fine.
“Not sure what handgun you’re modeling that off of”
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1754
DaveB might have said something in the comments here.
Thank you. I remember the strip, but don’t always read the comments. Must have missed that one.
Never underestimate the power of dosh.
Cue crazed spending spree.
Careful Sydney, the bank might not accept a cheque that has slobber all over it. Mind you, does Sydney really want to go to the bank? Last time she was there (was that only yesterday?), there was a little trouble (as in “Come with me or there will be …”). Direct deposit might be a good idea.
It’s a good idea regardless- with a cheque, Sydney could forget to deposit it. With direct deposit, it goes in automatically. (not to mention it saves the potential embarassment of not depositing your paycheque before the bilsl need to be paid)
and with the size of that check, it saves her the embarrassment of being escorted into the managers office for an extended wait while the cops are being called, preceding her arrest and subsequent investigation for FRAUD… seeing as how ANYBODY walking into a bank with THAT kind of money, when they have her records on file as being “paycheck-to-paycheck” will pop MASSIVE amounts of red flags… yep instant fraud or “passing counterfeit checks” or even who know… a drug dealing/money laundering investigation… ESPECIALLY when the check is from a financial institution of the government that until yesterday DIDN’T EXIST in the FINANCIAL world…
The bank has no need to do anything like that. If you’re just depositing it (instead of trying to walk out with cash immediately) they’ll probably confirm your ID and just take the check and do any due diligence after you leave, but before they release any money into your account.
If you wanted to just cash it and walk out with the money right then, then they’d probably just politely tell you that they couldn’t do that until the check cleared.
I’m sure they have various procedures for checking unusual transactions, and probably certain types of transactions trigger more checks, but if they arrested everyone who won the lottery, or sold a house, or cashed an inheritance check, it’d be bad PR. If they just take a few days to clear the check, then they’re covered and the customer is happy. And if it turns out to be fraud, then the police get involved, but the bank isn’t out any money and the fraudster hasn’t made any money.
Regardless of the established system, I think Arianna took care of the issue of them thinking the check counterfeit with that press conference.
By the way Sydney, firing it across the room is not why it is called a firing pin. Besides, most military handguns do not secure the firing pins with screws; it make them harder to service in the field that way.
nope, take a closer look… that’s the BARREL she just launched. it’s been a really long time for me and i can’t remember what that part DOES, on the barrel but i DO remember that it IS the barrel from when we had our training before being activated in the Reserves to go over to Kuwait… but we normally never SEE that portion of it because it is hidden by the other parts of the slide and grip assemblies.
brain brake
Brain break (as in, not just stopped, but something is broken in there, and not just the usual stuff).
I have to give it to Syd to actually THINK of sitting down and working on a gun, and THEN even being smart and coherent enough to pull up that diagram. Though she might have had a big piece of help somewhere along that line where she is at the start of the page.
AND she manages to be present enough to think about asking if the paycheck was before or after taxes.
Considering how much her shop must have made to keep her and Joel decently established and the shop running (something between 5-15k/month at least), the paycheck has to be huge.
Most of us would drool or even faint.
She’s not dumb, just a little unfocussed
She has been reading the manual for the last couple of hours, ever since Peggy issued it to her along with the parts for her pistol. She started referencing things from it while still at the range.
Hah! I love panel 3 (the screw comment notwithstanding). Most of us having to breakdown autoloaders, both large and small, have had that happen. The awesomeness/hilarity/horror of a ‘Drill’ unloading on a poor Pvt. who’s spring has gone ‘schpwing’ across the armory bay is a sight indeed.
Is it kinda like when you’d screw around with pens in highschool?
Disassamble the pen, then toy around with the spring until it jumps away into the void, never to be found again?
Funnier is when watch new rec put together a Minimi (M249) for the first time, if the barrel hasn’t been put back on right, when they fire the action, the barrel jumps off the front of the weapon.
Or watching any of the weapons in the game Far Cry 2 blow up after too much use. This is one of those games where the weapons degrade (quickly!), can’t be repaired, and start jamming (and eventually fly apart) if fired too much… the more powerful the weapon, the quicker they start to fail (in as few as 3 or 4 clips, even).
And when they fail, they fail spectacularly. As often as the hammer flies back in his face, by the time he’s halfway through the game, your character would probably look like a one-eyed hedgehog with spiky “fur” made of slides. Enjoy: https://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Far_Cry_2
Also amusing (except when it happens to you) is trying to replace a circlip, also known as a “Jesus Clip” or a “Jesus Spring”, because of its tendency to slip out of your grip and fly to the other end of the garage, causing you to say “Jesus! Where did it go?” (hence the name).
In a similar vein, I thought my name was Jesus Christ during my early years.
“Jesus Christ, get off the table!”
“Jesus Christ, don’t jump on the bed!”
…And so it went…
Why does that remind me of the Bill Cosby sketch where he says he thought his name was Jesus Christ and his brother was Dammit? “Dammit, get over here!”
“Jesus clip”. Yes. The Magnum Research Desert Eagle is a very robust pistol. It has to be to reliably fire .50 Action Express, so all the parts are chunky and oversized even when compared to large frame guns like the 1911.
But there are are two recoil spring guide rods under the barrel with two springs on each rod, a larger spring over a smaller spring. And the only thing holding the springs on each rod is a tiny “C” clip. And to properly clean the Gun, the springs have to be taken off. And then put back on. So here you are, fighting two recoil springs capable of handling the recoil of a .50 Magnum while trying to clip this tiny little fiddly thing back on the guide rod.
I’ve probably launched half a dozen of them into the hinterlands of my living room. Luckily the local hardware store has replacements.
To be fair, even if you’re stupidly rich, 40 bucks is still alot of money to spend on lunch. I am here asuming that they try to keep a normal life offcourse (I like to think I would)
Maybe get a new used car, clean up your lodgings and put the rest where it does the work for you while you go back to normal work each day until you bought out enough to secretly be your boss’ boss.
The worst thing you can actually do with money is let people know you have it; then you’ll loose it even faster than on a wild shopping spree.
Thats true, but remember that Harem is still 19. 19 year olds end to forget things like budgeting if you hand them even a tiny bit of money.
I think you might be a few years off there.
19 is officially adult. I know plenty of 19 year olds living alone, doing fine. Hell I was one
That’s you…Harem is an “experience junkie.” She’s the kind who wants to try everything once…Even more if she likes it.
Agreed. Just because you suddenly make more money, you become stupid with what you have?
Oh, I’m rich(er) now… just overcharge me for everything, I don’t care, lalala.
actually, it CAN happen- though it’s more usually that you don’t think about how much you are spending now. It’s less people not caring about of they are overcharged, and more getting overexcited about how much money they have, and spending money like water trying to show off.
Though overcharging can be an issue- I wonder if that lunch was realyl worth $40? and look at the attitude of the other ARCSWAT members- it’s more or less “meh, we can afford it”- not exactly encouraging that they are keeping a close eye on their finances.
Having said that, i doubt Sydney will go insane about it- possibly help out the shop, possibly get a better car, but spending it all super-fast? nope.
It depends on the ingredients of the lunch, really. Also, if there was any alcohol at all involved. There’s a difference between “the finest, whatever it costs” and “if it’s expensive, it must be good”. The latter is, of course, bone stupid, but we really are socialized to think of price as an indicator of value. The former attitude, on the other hand, can have a fairly dramatic impact on quality of life, and so can be a reasonable goal so long as you have the bucks to back it up.
Also note–I’m willing to bet that even the janitorial staff of the shops and restaurants are paid top-dollar. Why? Because they’re serving supers, in a clearance-required facility, that might be seriously under attack someday. By the time you get someone who:
1: Is top-notch at their craft;
2: Can pass a standard background check;
3: Is willing to submit to both the check AND any NDAs they must sign;
4: Is willing to be on the premises of a facility that could be subjected to attack by someone like Vehemence…
You’re talking about a sizable paycheck. In order to pay staff like that, you also have to charge a significant premium.
unfortunately it is NOT in a “clearance required facility”… that’s why Peggy and Halo had to switch elevators when they went to lunch during Halo’s interview, they went from the Hardened Military side to the Squishy, UN-Armored Civilian side. as for my read on how Peggy described it; it seemed that they went from an office/housing complex to a civilian mall during that elevator swap, in that there are seemingly no restrictions on the general populous from coming and going… but are stopped by the elevator… no card key and/or password = no ride the elevator…if you persist, then you get escorted out by people like Stalwart and into an “interview room” for further questioning as to WHY you persisted…
Heh, I had the value of a dollar drilled into my by my grandparents. I make a very good salary and still shop at the local dollar store. There is no amount of money that overcomes the silliness of spending $4.00 for a jar of mustard (as only one example) at the grocery store when the dollar store 4 shops down the strip sells it for $1.00.
I think she just broke her.
I figure the Pentagon bought F-16s for 17 million each (they’re selling them for a LOT more, but let’s go with the MSRP), so Sydney could be pulling in a cool 1.7 million a year. With pay every two weeks, that’s around sixty-five grand a paycheck.
Worth it. I’d put Sydney up against the much more expensive F-35. Better payload, probably better stealth, quite possibly better sensors with the farsight orb, and we don’t know her top speed. Of course, the way things have been going, I’d put a thrown rock against the F-35…
aaaaaaand they broke her.
Actually, I think she broke herself; the “rare and valuable” made her realize just how much of a comic convention she could now afford to buy. She could even afford that Halo #1, signed by artist & hero….
I think the thing most of us here would do is actually buy that Action Comic #1. At least Joel and Syd are now safe with their little shop.
Reaction checks out, would definitely break the mind of someone like Sydney, and most other normal people.
Dave can we have that last panel without speech bubble? :D can imagine so many situations where it would fit in.
Never had a civil service job before, I guess.
As a nerd…
I think one of the first purchases would be…
A 3T solid state drive PLUS a notebook to put around it.
ALL the cable options… Including the languages I don’t understand.
Only 3T ???
Samsung just announced a 16 TB SSD with IOPS in the millions!
I’m just guessing but another thought in her mind is the dream PC gaming system that she wants is now less than 1 paycheck.
Oculus Rift! (Or whatever that head goggles thing is.)
Not sure it’s for sale or was a proof of concept by a hobbyist,
but if she’s into flight simulators there was a cockpit on servo driven
gimbals (It looked like a canoe) to give inner ear feedback for turns and dives.
Pfft!… why go plebeian? she can afford to rent some time on one of the Military Simulators… or if they won’t let her do that, then I’m sure that Boeing would be glad to offer up the sims for jumbo jets :D
Why would someone who can fly want to spend time in a flight simulator? She can fly, no simulation required! And while her top speed hasn’t been tested, we do know she can fly at about half of the speed of sound. That’s just under the cruising speed of most passenger jets.
because she a GAMER, maybe? i know “I” would at least TRY to do it at least once… i may crash and burn in the thing, but Damn, it would be FUN doing so!…
$40 is still a lot of money to pay for lunch at your workplace.
I can’t make sense of how this page is supposed to follow from the lastone, but I like it in a vacuum. Where’s Harem? Is this a consequence of her alerting Arianna to Syd’s ignorance on this matter? Where’s Anvil for that matter? Where is Sydney sitting? I don’t understaaaaaaaand.
Harem said ‘go make yourself usefull’
This page is a little while after the last one
And where is she sitting? In the break room with that big TV where all of her future teammates watched her sort of foil a bank robbery yesterday.
So that’s what it takes to break Sydney………………………………..
Sydney has never seen a cheque with this many significant digits before. Usually the zeros are in front of the significant digits, not after. As struggling business owner, Sydney probably has had pay that barely paid her expenses, like rent and car payments, insurance, fuel. Her own food is also included in there. So she has a check in her hand in excess of $20 000? Action #1, nah, she will want Detective #27 (intro of Batman) or Batman #1 (intro of Joker).
Probably not over $20,000. See above.
Joel + Sydney’s comic book shop => Sydney’s Public Comic Collection, small sample of her private comic collection..
Love the last panel. I wish I had occasion to make a face like that.
So does this mean that Sydney is earning 6-figure salary.
Most likely, yes. That’s a lot for cop duty, but it’s about what an entry-level engineer makes, so with the rarity of supers, I guess it’s reasonable.
Engineers dont (normally) get hazard pay so I’m guessing theres a significant multiplier to that figure :P
Sydney is more than a cop…She’s in an elite, special forces military unit. Just the training & education she’ll be expected to handle is far, far more than what a cop’s financing is worth.
Remember that she’s getting paid every 2 weeks thoug.
No, entry-level engineers don’t get 6 figures. *Experienced* engineers do, all the time, but not entry-level.
possibly even 7 figures. Put it this way- she’d be well advised to go see a financial adviser. ( and TBH, I would get a non-Arianna lawyer. Arianna’s primarily PR, and she likely mainly represents Archon as a whole. Having a seperate lawyer would be useful for making sure someone is representing Sydney’s interests, in case they don’t co-incide with Archon’s. ( like reminding Archon that they promised not to schedule her on new comics day))
That was Maxima who called her in though.
Even if Arianna can’t help her directly, she’ll no doubt know be able to refer her to some good help
Sydney was willing to do this without money being involved. Now that they are going to throw money at her she will realise she has to do something with it all… super museum maybe? Although to be fair she is going to have to beef up security at her very public job and home.
At her home maybe, to stop people robbing the place when she’s gone.
But you don’t honestly think someone is going to try and rob a Archon trained super personally right?
Every nerd in the world would probably have that place near the top of their “If I were a Supervillain, I would rob…” list.
And, given that at least a few of them will have superpowers…
Even Batman’s been robbed a couple of times.
Some one get Sydney a wealth consultant!
I’m sure one is among the amenities Archon provides. And someone will be steering her that way ASAP.
Totally would want her to meet with a super heroic account, in her Ducktales style money-vault lair.
maybe, but it is a good idea for Sydney to shop around, as it were. (just like Sydney shouldn’t really be relying on Arianna as her lawyer- too much risk of a conflict of interest should Sydney have a problem with Archon.) why? because the wealth consultant works for Archon, not Sydney- any advice may be biased.
Remember, Sydney is still just a recruit. Her pay-scale is going to be much lower than a superhero with more rank AND years in service. I am guessing that someone kept it simple and set the superhero recruit take-home pay at $1M annually. I am also guessing that there are signing bonuses that will come to fruition every couple of years or so, plus some pretty potent benefits, like a free lawyer to deal with the slew of lawsuits that are going to show up. And yet, I still agree that $40 for lunch is still pretty high, unless it is prepared by a **** chef with top shelf/fresh ingredients. Sydney may have eaten some expensive sushi or a vegan dish that tastes like bacon.
… “****”?
was that supposed to be a censure? or a 4 star? why not go for 5?
4 star. I didn’t think chef ratings went above 4. Hotels do, but I don’t think chefs do. Of course, I could be wrong.
If you mean Michelin stars, they only go up to three.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelin_Guide#Stars
Are there any other kinds of chef stars?
At least it’s the only one that matters
dang it man, you made Sydney’s brain explode…it’s going take a week of re-organizing Sgt. Rock comics to get her brain back in gear.
Hehe, and I wondered why nobody brought that up before.
Wow, I cought up to present day now… looks like I’ll be having to wait for new strips from now on. :(
Anyway, I’m glad the coloring style went back to normal on this page. I think the art-style went too far into 3D shading over the last pages. I know people who like western comics prefer it that way, but I like the simple 2-color shading of Anime more than the 3D shading with smooth transitions.
I don’t know why… I like the additional detail of the new art style, it’s just that the old style made the girls look … cuter: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/386
It definitely took some of Sydney’s adorkableness away. And as we all know, being adorkable is Syd’s actual super power. :P
Actually, now that I think about it; what if the green and red orb are uneffective because they would grant Syd powers she has naturally anyway? Like super-quirkyness and genre-savvyness? And touching the orbs would basicly just result in a non-stacking buff not overwriting the more powerful passive one?
So many questions…
Actually, I love the art style of Dabblers science corner:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/376
Especially Dabbler looks totally cute in full anime style.
Same here.
This is the first time I’ve noticed the end of that first panel: “Think of it like the Q&A on EGS.” I think when he wrote that, I wasn’t even reading EGS yet. Now it’s my favorite comic.
You do show a great example of how DaveB’s style has evolved over the years.
Personally I think it’s way better.
On the orbs topic:
That’s an intersting idea. It’s possible that one of the orbs would provide, for example. the ability to breathe in an alian atmosphere (that would be passive than, obviously). You do have to remember that, if these orbs are alien tools, they may have been build for someone evolved in a different atmosphere.
The idea that these orbs are some hyperadvanced alien’s spacesuit has been brought up before